SASKATOON, Canada — After years of concerted but futile attempts to organize workers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., union leaders are joining forces to stop the world's largest employer from exporting its low-wage jobs across the globe.
In Canada, Germany and Japan, unions are using protests, the courts and political pressure to thwart the giant retailer's expansion.
The effort, one of the most extensive union campaigns in modern labor history, is gathering speed. International labor leaders, meeting in Chicago this week to craft an anti-Wal-Mart campaign, say slowing the retailer is crucial to protecting the wages and living conditions of millions of workers.
Wal-Mart, union officials say, represents all that is wrong with the global economy, including sweatshop abuses and the extinction of mom-and-pop businesses.
"Our emphasis is to get Wal-Mart to abide by the rules," said Jan Furstenborg, head of the commercial division of Union Network International, a Swiss-based umbrella organization that represents more than 900 skills and services unions around the world. "We want the company to realize they have to change if they want to be part of the global business community."
Wal-Mart and its supporters argue that the retailer has raised living standards from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Detroit, by delivering jobs and low prices to some of the world's poorest neighborhoods. The retailer, which draws 138 million shoppers a week to its 5,379 stores and restaurants worldwide, says it pays its workers equal or better wages than its competitors. Last year, Wal-Mart revenue was $285 billion.
Denying that the company was anti-union, Bryan Miller, a Wal-Mart senior vice president, said the retailer preferred to have "a direct relationship with our associates" without the involvement of a third party. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people around the world, the majority of whom are nonunion workers in North America.
Labor experts say union leaders face an uphill task, given Wal-Mart's deep pockets, its broad support and a disagreement within the labor movement over how to confront the challenges of free trade.
They cite Canada, where unions remain a powerful presence, as an example. In 2003, 32.4% of the Canadian workers were unionized, compared with 14.3% in the U.S., according to Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank.
